CASE STUDY: INBO RETREATS
Building a Shared Culture from the Inside Out
“Inbo’s deep expertise in facilitation and design thinking enabled us to have productive and impactful sessions.”
The Client
The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ young people. With over 25 years of service, their work is critical, heart-driven, and often high-intensity. In 2023, The Trevor Project’s Clinical Operations team was navigating growth, transitions, and shifting leadership, and needed to strengthen alignment around culture, vision, and success.
The Challenge
Creating Cohesion Across a Growing, Evolving Team
The Clinical Operations department spans eight diverse sub-teams. With new leaders, shifting team dynamics, and evolving service delivery needs, the organization identified a gap: they needed a stronger sense of shared culture and purpose. Their goals were to:
Rebuild trust after a period of change and rapid growth
Define what success looks like across roles and teams
Establish values-aligned ways of working, from meetings and decisions to communication and accountability
Spark ownership, clarity, and connection across the vertical
The Inbo Approach
Three Days of Intentional Design, Dialogue & Alignment
Inbo partnered with The Trevor Project to design and facilitate a 3-day in-person retreat in New York City for 35–40 members of the Clinical Operations leadership team. Our approach was trauma-informed, equity-centered, and highly participatory. Each day was designed to build on the last, combining strategic design with deep listening and hands-on co-creation:
Day 1 – Grounding & Trust-Building
Opened with relationship-building and leadership storytelling
Explored foundations of trauma-informed leadership practices
Created a safe and connected space to surface honest dialogue
Day 2 – Culture & Values in Action
Facilitated the co-creation of a Culture Canvas focused on team norms, feedback, communication, rituals, and psychological safety
Connected organizational values to the daily work of Clinical Operations
Clarified how leadership values show up across roles and functions
Day 3 – Alignment on Strategy and Success
Defined vertical-level priorities and measurable success outcomes
Aligned on service and quality standards across sub-teams
Closed with a collaborative synthesis of key ideas and themes to be shared across the organization
Throughout, we created feedback loops with leadership to support post-retreat integration.
The Results
A Shared Language for Culture, Clarity, and Forward Momentum
A Custom Culture Canvas: Developed and co-owned by the Clinical Operations team, capturing shared commitments around meetings, decisions, communication, values, feedback, and psychological safety
Renewed Trust & Engagement: Leaders voiced greater clarity, accountability, and openness, setting the foundation for stronger collaboration
Clearer Strategic Direction: Teams aligned on KPIs, service standards, and cross-functional collaboration to drive outcomes
Sustainable Momentum: A summarized and synthesized version of the Culture Canvas was prepared for broader team rollout, supporting implementation, reflection, and continuous iteration
Why It Worked
Inbo met the Trevor Project where they were: in a moment of flux and transformation. Our facilitation grounded people in care and possibility, while our design methods moved them toward clarity and action. The retreat became a launchpad for cultural renewal, built on purpose, not perfection.